SIDS Monitors

I have a child with sleep apnea and is on a machine nightly. It is one that the insurance covers and it is a belt that he wears around his chest with two leads that come off of it and connects to the monitor...it is wonderful, I had many sleepless nights prior to this worrying about him. Prior to the insurance providing this I did by an angle monitor and you can get them at BabiesRUs and they can range from over $100 to like $80 and it is a flat mat that goes under the sheet and when there is no movement for 20 seconds it sounds an alarm. I know...20 seconds seems like a very long time, however that must be pretty standard because that is the same time frame that the one from the insurance.
Any other questions feel free to email me.

1 mom found this helpful

Carrie,

I would hope that they wouldn't take the baby to bed with them. There's a number of reasons that's not a good idea. Including seperating mom and dad. The monitor should work fine.

1 mom found this helpful

We have one, I didn't get one until I had my last child. Mainly because I didn't know they existed. Thank God we did though because it went off one night when he was 5 months old because he had stopped breathing. He's fine now and haven't had that happen since but it is terrifying to say the least. Anyway we got ours from Walmart it's a BebeSounds Angelcare monitor with one receiver. They also have this type with two receivers but we only needed the one. For nap time I'm never far away and you can hear the alarm even without the receiver on. We use it for naps and at night. We've only ever had two false alarms because he moved into the corner in his sleep and it didn't register him on the crib but those were the only two times. He's 8 months old now and we still use it and we absolutely love it!! I truly believe it saved my son's life. Here's the link to the product at Walmart....
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2620238

If the baby has a medical condition his doctor can perscribe an apnea monitor. My son was a preemie & he came home with one. Ours had a sticky pad with a lead attached to it & it just stuck to his skin. It goes off if a baby stops breathing for 20 seconds (I think) & records the number of episodes that the baby has.

God Bless!

Babies with sleep apnea tend to breath better through the night when sleeping in the parental bed. According to what I have read, SIDS almost never occurs when infants sleep with at least one parent. In many cultures around the world children sleep with at least one parent the first year or two. It appears that the breathing patterns of the parents remind the baby's body to breath. This way the baby breaths better, allowing more oxygen to the brain throughout the night, and the parents can sleep better when they don't have to listen for a monitor to alarm them while they try to sleep. I have always found that the best monitor is nearness. It costs less, too!

From what I have read, sleep apnea is far more common in babies after they are vaccinated. Although a world renowned doctor conducted the research that proved this, the CDC has not accumulated much data in this regard because MDs do not report the condition as an adverse vaccine reaction. In fact, it is the responsibility of the parents to report adverse vaccine reactions to the CDC. You will find the phone number in the blue pages of the phone book. Unless parents begin noticing that this condition develops following a vaccine and report it, the CDC will remain ignorant of the facts. Although vaccines may not be the only cause of sleep apnea in infants, it has been found to be extremely rare in unvaccinated children.

Hi C.,
I would definitely have your friends speak to her pediatrician about getting an apnea monitor through insurance. They are worth the effort. My daughter was a preemie and we had a commercial grade apnea monitor on her for 6 months. After she came home from the hospital, she still had terrible apnea and would stop breathing once and a while when she slept. To get them to breathe again, you just need to gently wake them up and pat them on the back. Apnea happens when the child goes into a deep sleep and the body forgets to breathe. The monitor sometimes made it difficult for us to sleep because it was going off a lot, but when we did sleep, we sleep with the reassurance that our baby was OK. Your friend will need to talk to her pediatrician to get the apnea monitor-- if she wants the one that is a little more reassuring than the pad. My daughter was also on a prescription of caffeine so that she would not fall into a very deep sleep. Tough for us to do, but it saved her life. Best of luck to your friend.

I bet it is an apnea monitor and not a SIDS monitor. A lot of times premature babies will have problems breathing and even when they are on "room air" and not on oxygen they will put them on a monitor like this just as a precaution

The AngelCare monitor .... The only one I will recommend ..... I got LOTS more sleep after getting it !!!